Mahindra United coach Derrick Pereira will be the first to admit that his team hasn't set the stands alight in their journey to the final of the 120th edition of the Durand Cup.
With only one goal in three matches, that too a penalty conversion which saw them beat Border Security Force in the last 16, the Mumbai outfit has had to rely on their prowess in tie-breakers to make it to the title round, where they face in-form Churchill Brothers, at the Ambedkar stadium, in Delhi, on Wednesday.
Mahindra will also have a big hole in their line-up for the title decider, as India international N P Pradeep is out with a hamstring injury while Gautam Debnath has not recovered from a blow to the head, sustained against Sporting Clube de Goa in the quarter-finals.,
"Losing Pradeep is a big setback for us as he is the main main player for us in defence," Pereira said on Tuesday.
Sunil Kumar and Dharmaraj Ravanan will man the back-line and be in charge of the unenviable task of curbing the threat of Churchill's Nigerian striker Odafe Onyeka Okolie, who has scored 10 goals in three matches in the tournament.
"We play as 11 men and I will not put any extra emphasis on one player as it is a team game. But we do need to be careful about Okolie, as he is in great form," Pereira said.
However, he is worried about his team's lack of goals in the tournament and said the players have taken time to combine well as a unit.
"Since (Ghanain Yusuf) Yakubu returned, we have not played together much and it has taken time for him to combine with the India players. Yakubu has not got into his rhythm yet but he is improving match by match," the coach said.
There is an uncanny similarity between Mahindra's Durand campaign and their run to the final of the Federation Cup in September in Ludhiana, where they came up short against East Bengal.
But Pereira denied that playing for the penalty shoot-out was a conscious strategy.
"Every time we go on the field, we try to win. We don't wait for the tie-breaker. In the last match also, we defended well. We just need to find the net now," he said.
With players like Steven Dias, Krishnan Ajayan, Manjit Singh and custodians Sandip Nandy and Subhashish Roychowdhury, the coach has a lot of talent at his disposal to land a third Durand title for the club.
Mahindra is yet to concede a goal but its display in the tournament so far would have left football aficionados, other than die-hard fans of the team, bitterly disappointed and Pereira will want his team to put up a memorable performance on the morrow.
In contrast, Churchill seems to be firing on all cylinders. They brushed aside Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Central Railway but were severely tested by Air India in the semi-finals, where they had to come back from a deficit twice to prevail 3-2, Okolie supplying the winner.
The Nigerian's burst of speed has been too much to handle for the opposing defences and it remains to be seen how the Mahindra defence copes with the danger. If he runs riot, Mario Soares's side might well walk away with the title in the world's third oldest tournament in their maiden entry in the final.
The Churchill defence, marshalled by India international Goourmangi Singh, does not appear water-tight and Air India capitalised on two set-pieces. They will also be missing Chandam Singh, who received two yellow cards.
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